AIRCRAFT COULD CARRY POLICE TO RECORD POT-PLANT SEIZURES

State Police officials have seized more than 6,000 cultivated outdoor
marijuana plants this year through July 31 and are on pace to top the
6,990 plants seized in 1999 and the 6,287 seized in 2000.

The enforcement efforts included an operation Wednesday in eastern
Marion County, western Hancock County and northwestern Shelby County;
334 plants in 34 plots were identified by troopers using a helicopter.
Ground forces then swept in to chop them and remove them for eventual
destruction.

The marijuana plots "were cutouts in a cornfield and very easy to see
in the air," said Lou Perras, a State Police trooper and one of the
coordinators of the pot-eradication effort. "I was quite surprised we
found that much. It seemed everywhere we turned, we found more."

State Police say they are being more aggressive in using aircraft, a
tip hotline and cooperative farmers to locate and destroy the plants.
Outdoor marijuana growers often plant their crop on someone else's
land without the landowner's knowledge.

Although almost every local law enforcement agency targets marijuana
to some extent, the State Police have led the way, thanks in part to
$615,000 in federal funds. The money helps pay officers' overtime and
maintain the fleet of eight helicopters and four airplanes used as
spies in the sky.

State Police Cpl. Mike Crabtree of Fort Wayne said 275 arrests of
indoor or outdoor growers have been made from Jan. 1 to July 31, a 120
percent increase over the same period last year.

And from Michigan City to Evansville, the number of seized marijuana
plants that grow wild in the countryside -- as well as indoor plants
and processed marijuana -- is up, as are weapons and assets seized in
such busts.

"For us, every plant that we take off the street, we just eliminated a
pound of dope being used by our kids and sold by our kids. It's
critical," Crabtree said.

The anonymous tip line number to report suspected marijuana growing is
1-888-873-1694.